Deadly Haiti drone attack kills 8 children
By Al Jazeera, September 23, 2025A deadly drone attack in an impoverished area of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which killed at least 11 people, including eight children, is being blamed on the government, as the country’s use of the UAVs in its war on gangs comes under increasing scrutiny.
The incident happened on Saturday night in Cité Soleil, one of Port-au-Prince’s most dangerous neighbourhoods, in the city’s west along the coast, as Albert Steevenson, known as Djouma or “King Jouma”, who is a suspected gang leader, was celebrating his birthday.
The area is believed to be controlled by the Viv Ansanm (Living Together) coalition of gangs, which the United States designated a “foreign terrorist” organisation in May.
One of the group’s leaders and most notorious figures, Jimmy Cherizier, known as Barbecue, promised to avenge the attack.
Claudia Bobrun, 30, whose daughter was killed in the attack, showed The Associated Press news agency a video of the eight-year-old in a pool of blood, as she burst into tears.
Merika, another four-year-old victim of the attack, was playing with other children at 8 pm in the Simon Pele neighbourhood, in Cite Soleil, where the suspected kamikaze drone exploded.
The girl’s grandmother, Mimose Duclaire, told the Miami Herald: “While they were playing, I heard a ‘boom’ and when I looked, I saw both of her knees were broken and her head was split open.”
Merika died on her way to the hospital.
Drone strike hits
The National Human Rights Defence Network (RNDDH), a human rights group, has said the explosions were caused by two kamikaze drones launched by the Haitian National Police task force.
Neither the spokesperson for Haitian police nor the prime minister’s office responded to the AP’s requests for comment on the incident.
The RNDDH said the casualty figures were a conservative estimate, but believed at least four gang members were killed, as well as three civilians.
Authorities in Haiti have been battling soaring levels of gang violence in their capital, where gangs control approximately 80 percent of the city, according to the United Nations, and began turning to drones earlier this year to gain an edge.
The government first publicly signalled that it was using drones in June when local police posted a video on Facebook of an attack on a gang leader. The government is believed to have been using drones since March this year.